


Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

by modelmagic



Category: Trolls (Movies 2016 2020)
Genre: Gen, also bi branch and cloud gay, other hcs for characters who briefly appear, trans branch (trolls), trans cloud guy (trolls)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 13:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29999877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/modelmagic/pseuds/modelmagic
Summary: Before a pride-themed party starts, Branch shares an unexpected moment of solidarity with Cloud Guy, of all people.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

**Author's Note:**

> hello lgbt community  
> tw for slight gender dysphoria? its definitely more gender envy than anything

"I already know the answer to this, but," Branch stacked empty cups next to a punch bowl on a table, "don't you think it's a little much?"

Placing colorful balloons wherever she thought looked good, Poppy light-heartedly gasped at his question. "Branch!"

"I just don't think we need all this stuff for a pride party, that's all." Not to be confused with the parade, which does indeed tend to go off the rails. A pride party would be more of a gathering, but with flags.

Speaking of which, they were both already dressed for the occasion; Branch's hair served as the blue in the bisexual flag, so he wore a 'proper, non-leafy' purple vest, and topped it off with magenta pants. Poppy had the same colors for the small flowers that were placed all over her hair, but her dress was light blue with a white gradient near the bottom, with pink flowers on the hem. Branch also wore those colors in the form of a little trans flag as a patch on his pants.

With her usual smile, Poppy scoffed while tilting her head to the side. "There isn't that much stuff, come on." Placing her hands on her hips, she raised an eyebrow at her friend.

"You _know_ I'm talking about _that_." Using his thumb, Branch pointed behind him, where a comically large, walk-in wooden crate could be seen. It basically looked like a small party store, with any decorations, games, and supplies that they could possibly need. With perfect timing, a delivery troll riding on a dragonfly dropped another crate on top.

" _Weeell_ ," her voice dragged on in a way in which he knew she was up to something, "it _is_ this year's first pride event _and_ the first one with the other tribes, so of course it's gonna be big!"

Branch blinked. "Oh, that's it?" It... made sense. A lot of stuff for a lot of trolls, no fear of running out of supplies. It'll quite literally be a big party, but not anything outlandish that he should be worried about.

"Yeah! We need all this since I invited everyone!"

"Huh. Good on you for being so prepar- _Waitdidyousay **everyone**?!_"

Nonononono-

"Cloud Guy!" Poppy waved. "Hey!"

Before she could even finish saying his name, Branch had bolted out of there and found shelter by hiding behind the crate. Cloud Guy just _had_ to show up before the event was even set up, huh? Couldn’t be any of Branch’s new friends. No, _him._

After catching his breath, Branch ever so slightly poked his head from behind the wooden surface to glare at the aforementioned nuisance. He came to find out that it wasn't just him talking to Poppy, but his new family, too.

All of them had pride outfits on; his daughters wore rainbow bows while his son had a trans-colored propeller hat, and Branch hated how he was _this_ close from going 'aww'. His wife's glasses had the same orange-to-magenta gradient as the lesbian flag, meanwhile Cloud Guy himself finally swapped his nasty socks for rainbow ones. Branch didn't even want to know WHAT was going on in that relationship.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that Cloud Guy's wife (Whatsername— Were they even still married? Okay, maybe Branch kinda wanted to know what was going on there) had light blue, pink, and white bracelets on one arm. Huh. Maybe he had more in common with her than he thought, other than having a kinda dry demeanor, seeming perpetually annoyed, and being grey at some point... Actually, Branch had a bit too much in common with _Cloud Guy's wife_ , and he did NOT want to unpack that.

While Branch couldn't really hear what they were talking about, he heard Cloud Guy's laughing, and his close-eyed expression revealed something: he didn't have his usual purple, or pink, or _whatever_ eyeshadow. Instead, his eyelids had stripes... in light blue, pink, and white.

...

Branch hid fully behind the crate again, resting the back of his head against it.

No, Cloud Guy wasn't trans.

How? Like, what sense did that make? He didn't look trans- oof, that didn't sound good. He... didn't seem trans? Didn't feel trans? How could Branch explain it without it sounding like... that.

Why did he care so much? Actually, he didn't care. He shouldn't care about this. It's not like Cloud Guy being trans changed anything about him. He was still an awful person, the absolute worst. He just so happened to be trans, just like Branch.

Just like Branch...

But Branch felt so... different from him. It's not like Cloud Guy was peak masculinity- Not to invalidate his identity or anything! ...Ugh. Branch brought a hand to his forehead.

Maybe Cloud Guy was just a trans ally. That was it.

Maybe he was just an ally wearing a trans flag, the same way that he was apparently a gay man who married a woman because that made perfect sense for him. Maybe he wasn't even gay. Again, made perfect sense.

"Sick bi pride getup." Said a voice coming from _who else_ , who spontaneously appeared next to Branch, causing him to scream. "I'd def rock those colors, but I'm exclusively a man's man, man."

With a groan, Branch stared down at Cloud Guy, who sat on the grass, resting against the crate. Using a rainbow bendy straw, the cloud drank from a coconut— no, not a coconut. That was a magic 8-ball— probably stole it from the party crate. And, of course, even his slurping was obnoxious.

His expression softening, Branch crossed his arms, looking at the ground as he spoke. "...Can I ask you something?"

Looking off into space, Cloud Guy took a looong sip of his poison. "Naaah."

In response, Branch lightly kicked his leg. "I'm serious. You..." He scratched the back of his neck, again refusing to look at his nemesis. "You're... wearing that trans flag as an ally, right?"

Seconds passed without a response from Cloud Guy, not even a blink, before he slowly turned his head up to face Branch. The dark lines under his eyes suddenly became very noticeable as he gradually raised an eyebrow as high as it could possibly go.

"You know I gave _birth_ , right?"

Branch jolted back, and the notably, seriously concerned look on Cloud Guy's face made him panic. "Sorry! Sorry, uh..." Ohhh, this was bad. This was the one time he didn't want to upset Cloud Guy. He didn't mean to come off that shocked— he _was!_ Having a physical reaction to it made him look like the absolute worst, though. "That's- That's great! I mean, that sucks? I'm sure that it hurt. Uh. I-I thought that any cloud could do that, just like us trolls do, and it didn't mean that you're trans- Not that there's anything wrong with that, obviously! _I_ am!" He frantically pointed at the flag on his pants. "You don't- Uh, you do look-... Your voice- It's just that- _UGH!_ " Grabbing fistfuls of his hair, Branch threw his head back.

With a deep exhale, Branch took a seat right next to Cloud Guy. The troll brought his knees closer to his chest, crossing his arms on top of them. "I wouldn't've guessed." His cheek rested atop his arms, mildly affecting the way his words escaped his lips on top of muttering them. "I'm... kinda jealous."

A quiet moment was followed by an absolutely heinous feeling of something cold slithering around him. Being fully alert, he came to realize that it was Cloud Guy's arms wrapping him in a hug. Had it not been for the fact that he was essentially in fetal position, this hug would've been... still uncomfortable. Cloud Guy's arms were humid and he smelled bad and _stop it._

Although Branch was fighting this physical contact as much as he could, it didn't stop Cloud Guy from talking to him. "I've been passing for so long, Sing-a-long. I hardly remember a time where I wasn't Cloud Guy. Actually, I do, and that was when I was Cloud _Boy._ "

"...That makes sense." The first part, not the redundant name change. For the time being, Branch attempted to ignore the embrace. "You're how much older than me?"

"...Yes."

For all Branch knew, Cloud Guy was a thousand years old. If he pushed any further, he'd probably learn about some intricacies of cloud aging that he didn't particularly care to know more about. Assigning any specific age to him didn't feel right, like Cloud Guy was some ageless entity.

All that being said, he could just imagine that he'll come to find out that Cloud Guy was, like, 40 and didn't say it out of embarrassment, is all.

"Anyway, I transitioned..." All alone? With no help and no idea where to start? With little to no energy to do so? Cloud Guy had seen him when he was grey, but Branch wasn't sure if he knew about... Either way, now wasn't the time for that. "...Not too long ago, I guess."

"Never too late to figure yourself out, Waterspout."

"Worked on my appearance, I meant." Branch clarified. "I've been trans for longer than that. I just didn't really do much about it at first, not that I had any idea of _what_ to do."

Cloud Guy hummed. "I pretty much winged it as well. My folks were no help at all." His eyelids became even more half-lidded as the mere thought of that tired him out. "You can imagine how long it took for them to even get it through their skulls."

Branch shuddered. "Horrifying."

Meeting his parents once was more than enough. Not to excuse Cloud Guy's whole... everything, but being raised by parents like those? It's no wonder he's so messed up, on top of intentionally being an annoying weirdo.

And to transition with them around? Branch would never be able to truly understand what that must've been like, but he almost pitied the cloud.

"...By any chance, did you go through a phase where you absolutely needed to jump up and high-five the top of every doorframe?" Cloud Guy asked, pursing his lips quizzically.

" _YES!_ " Branch shouted. "What's with that?!"

"I think it's a man thing to prove that we're taller? I dunno." Cloud Guy scratched under his chin. "It's like T made us sweaty and put a spring in our step— literally."

"Oh!" Branch's face lit up. "Did you go through a phase where you stored-"

Cloud Guy interrupted him by placing a finger in the air. "Did not go through a phase where I stored my sweat, believe it or not." He pat the top of his head. "That's not a universal experience, my liege."

Branch pouted. It was worth a shot. He still refused to believe that he was the only one.

Despite their relatively civil conversation, Branch would've still preferred to have his personal space. "Hey, I should get back to helping Poppy," he said as he failed yank Cloud Guy's arms away. There were times where he could slap them clean off of his cloud body, now he couldn't remove them with full force?

"Don't you worry 'bout that. Janet and the kids got it all covered." Cloud Guy smiled. "We have all the time in the world to be a bundle of bonding boys." He annoyingly fluttered his eyelashes right in Branch's face.

Staring daggers into his nemesis' beady little eyes, Branch frowned. "Oh joy."

"Sooo... penny for your trans thoughts, Tater Tots?"

While not putting up much of a fight, Branch sighed in defeat. It wasn't the worst thing in the world to connect with a fellow trans man, especially since he hadn't done it for this long before... But still, it was with Cloud Guy. Cloud. Guy.

His brows knit together as he thought of what to say. "...Maybe my voice would be deeper if I'd transitioned sooner." His voice was soft and it made him scowl.

Again, this was too personal to share with Cloud Guy, but good to get it off of his chest. Branch didn't entirely hate his voice, in fact he was quite proud of the high notes that he could reach. When it came to speaking, however? Sometimes he was full of yearning.

"Psh." Cloud Guy rolled his eyes with a small chuckle, like the king of empathy that he no doubt was. "I still practice my deep voice all the time. Love showin' off my progress to my cloud friends." His face beamed as he gasped excitedly. "We could go practice by the Troll Tree tunnels together.” There’s a tongue-twister. “The acoustics there are epic. Y'know, in the one tunnel that doesn't kill you."

Getting a deeper voice... by voluntarily spending more time with Cloud Guy. Normally, he'd say absolutely not, but right now? Kinda tempted to accept that offer, especially if Cloud Guy acted slightly tolerable, like he was right now. Kinda.

Cloud Guy was physically incapable of not being irritating though, and Branch grimaced at the arms that remained tightly looped around his body. "Let go. It's getting weird."

"Oh," that cloud seemed far too amused, "and it wasn't before? Interesting." Branch shoving a hand in his face was what finally freed him from this noodly, damp prison.

"So." Branch started. "...How _do_ you know that the other tunnels would kill you anyway?"

"I've gone in them?" Cloud Guy said, as if that was an obvious fact. "I can't die, but if I could, they _for sure_ would've ended me right then and there." He said with a shrug.

"And you went in all of them?"

"Yep."

Branch stared at him before slowly resting his head back against the crate. "Okay."

One second they're 'bonding' over their gender, the next they're discussing about getting killed inside of tunnels. Just trans men things.

"Okay!" Cloud Guy repeated with a clap of his hands. "Now I'll ask something."

"Nah."

"That wasn't even a question." Cloud Guy elbowed him playfully. Branch rolled his eyes with a smug look on his face. "Kinda odd how it was my transness that perplexed you and not my gay socks." He kicked a cozy foot up for emphasis.

"Now _that_ wasn't even a question." Branch shook his head. "And you know what?" Several of their previous interactions flashed across his mind, including but not limited to Cloud Guy kissing his face, sitting on his lap, and in general being too touchy to _solely_ be trying to annoy him. Not to mention how he was a self-proclaimed 'rainbow expert'. "...I had a hunch. The wife thing is what really confused me."

"Exactly the point, Arm Joint." Cloud Guy shot finger guns in his direction.

...

He WHAT?

" _NO WAY-_ " Pointing at him, Branch yelled in his face. "You- You got _married and had kids?!_ Just to confuse me?!" He grabbed his skinny little blue arms. "You're _insane!_ "

"In the brain? Absolutely. _Buuut-_ " Bringing his hands over his mouth, Cloud Guy cackled. "No. Don't flatter yourself. I have a life outside of you, Bug Shampoo." With that, he stretched his arm enough to pinch Branch's cheek.

Branch slapped his hand away. "Surprisingly."

"Let's just say..." Cloud Guy held his magic 8-ball again, and began to fiddle with the straw. "It's a long con on my parents."

While Branch was perfectly aware of how Cloud Guy's parents were, he couldn't help but snicker. "Really? Cloud 'I-Have-No-Fears' Guy started a family just so that he wouldn't upset his parents?"

"Oh, I could detail it muuuch more for you." The way Cloud Guy said that, it almost sounded like a threat. Branch was half sure that it _was_ a threat somehow. "You want that?"

"I'm good, thanks. But congratulations!" Clasping his own hands together, Branch's voice was as obviously fake-sounding as it could get. "That's still insane and not at all shocking coming from you!"

A big grin on his face, Cloud Guy held a hand over his non-existent heart. "You know me so well."


End file.
